Giving Roxanne the green light: should we legalise prostitution?

Priya: The fact of the matter is that men desire sex, and therefore lust after prostitutes who provide them with this service. You don’t have to have a degree in economics to recognise that the concept of supply and demand applies.

Kirsty: I agree that there is a demand, but I would argue that prostitution is a damaging exchange not only for the female or male sex worker providing a service, but also for the customer. Sex workers often encounter violence and discrimination, and the men and women who buy sex receive positive reinforcement that they are only as attractive as their wallet is big, not only affecting their behaviour towards sex workers but their social interactions in general.

Priya: That may be the case, but ultimately it’s a woman’s own decision if she wants to sell herself – or rather, if she wants to sell her body and become a sex object.

Kirsty: But whilst there are those who actively enjoy sex work and perhaps even would choose it over any alternate career, the upper middle-class ‘Belle Du Jour’ experience is not that of the average sex worker. Being forced to do something because the alternative is poverty or violence from a pimp is not the same as consenting to it.

Priya: It is true that some people are forced into prostitution – all the more reason to legalise it because then it is done on their own terms. They do not feel that their body is being abused, they have the right assistance and they have all the health checks which are necessary in order pursue a career as a legal sex worker.

Kirsty: I think that all of that is possible by decriminalising the act of selling sex and criminalising the act of buying it. It is possible for sex workers to have a safe environment without enabling or supporting the industry. By legalising both sides of the exchange, the government actively promotes the idea that prostitution is okay, which in turn sends a really powerful message about the role of women in our society: our relation to our sexuality is no longer a social, personal one but an economic exchange.

Priya: But since the beginning of time women have always been sex objects, and although this is necessarily the term still used today, the concept still applies. Women have wilfully engaged in the profession for generations; by legalising it we are making sure that they can continue to do so in a controlled and safer environment.

Kirsty: There is a history of women fulfilling various pre-determined roles; obedient wives handcuffed to the stove, being the possession of their husband or father, having no legal rights at all. I don’t necessarily think that a history of a profession is a justification for it, which in this case for a long time was the only profession available to a woman who didn’t want to marry or wall herself up alive in a nunnery. Once again, this is not the same as consent, and we need to take a serious look at the economic factors affecting prostitution and the sex trafficking industry, instead of sticking a plaster over the problem by legalising it.

Priya: However, Fiona Godley, who is the editor of the British Medical Journal, has said that by legalising prostitution, we not only allow prostitutes to work in safer premises but could help actually prevent child prostitution and illegal sex trafficking. Research has also suggested that a licensing system would help ensure that children were not employed in brothels, and that sex workers are not tainted by illegal drugs. It would also improve the proportion of foreign nationals in possession of work permits, so by legalising prostitution we would be tackling several issues.

Kirsty: The thing is, all these reforms become possible by decriminalising selling, allowing all the benefits of legalisation whilst tackling the industry. In Sweden, where it is only illegal to purchase sex, the benefits have been substantial. According to Prohibition of the Purchase of a Sexual Service: an Evaluation 1999-2008, a review of Swedish law released 11 years after it was put in place, the number of women involved in street prostitution has halved, and the number of Swedish men who had paid for sex dropped by 5.4%. Interviews with sex workers and the police among many others revealed that the law helped prevent trafficking and pimps, and had led to a reduction in organised crime. Sex workers also found it easier to find help and leave the industry.